In Pennsylvania, prosecutors have to prove that someone “engaged in sexual activity as a business.” But some police officers, the York Daily Record/Sunday News found, may be going to extreme lengths.

Inside the bedroom, Heather Strausbaugh sat talking with her client — the conversation ranged from nightlife and bars to their families. The man seemed nervous. But, eventually, he took off his clothes and laid beside her on the bed. That’s when she began to massage his leg and touch his genitals.

Minutes later, police officers barged through the front door, and saw the young woman, naked holding a blanket wrapped around her body, and the man she had just been in bed with was walking toward them.

Strausbaugh argued that what she had been doing was legal — there was never an exchange of money for sex. But a jury disagreed, finding that what had been happening was clearly prostitution.

So if that was true, she wondered in a recent interview, shouldn’t law enforcement have had their case more than 20 minutes before they barreled through her door — before the police officer took off his clothes, before she undressed and climbed into bed with him, before she started touching his leg and long before she began touching his genitals?

“I had posted an ad. I had arranged to meet him,” said Strausbaugh, 28, of Heidelberg Township, shifting in her seat as she recounted the details of her case. “If all of that made me guilty, then that should have been enough. At what point do they stop?”

A York Daily Record/Sunday News investigation into undercover prostitution stings in south-central Pennsylvania has found several recent cases that raise questions about whether police officers needed to go as far as they did to make an arrest and successfully prove the crime beyond a reasonable doubt:

Police departments that made these arrests seldom had written policies about how to conduct prostitution investigations — or, if they existed, the guidelines did not outline what conduct is prohibited.

The lack of policies — and latitude that police officers are provided under the law — has created the potential for abuse. Every time a person is prostituted, experts say, he or she is further victimized.

"At what point do they stop? Could he have gone the entire way and finished?" said Heather Strausbaugh, 28, of Heidelberg Township, in an interview. She was recalling the details of an undercover sting operation in which an West Manchester Township police officer got naked and laid next to her in bed.(Photo: Paul Kuehnel, York Daily Record)

‘There was no need for the officer to participate in the sexual activity’

In Pennsylvania, prosecutors must prove that a person “engaged in sexual activity as a business” to convict him or her of prostitution.

In the case, Trooper Donald Fredericks of the Pennsylvania State Police Vice Squad went to a hotel in Delaware County and arranged for a woman to give him a massage on May 31, 1978.

She eventually agreed to perform oral sex for $55, and she undressed. Fredericks gave her the money and then placed her under arrest.

The woman was found guilty of prostitution. But she challenged the sufficiency of the evidence because she “did not actually engage in any intercourse.”

That argument didn’t change the minds of the three judges.

“There was no need for the officer to participate in the sexual activity to the extent of having intercourse,” President Judge Edmund B. Spaeth Jr. wrote in the opinion.

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The proposed jury instructions for prostitution in Pennsylvania require that prosecutors prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a person "engaged in sexual activity as a business."(Photo: Dylan Segelbaum, York Daily Record)

So what about Strausbaugh’s case?

West Manchester Township Police Sgt. Adam Bruckhart testified about what happened on April 21, 2016. He had volunteered to go undercover and made arrangements to meet her that afternoon.

When Strausbaugh opened the door, she was wearing some type of lingerie and escorted him up to the bedroom. They had a 15-minute conversation.

At some point, Bruckhart testified that he asked how much money he owed “for her services.” She replied that she didn’t discuss payment and referred him to the ad. “She said, ‘Those are my prices, and you leave it on the dresser when you leave,’” he testified.

After a few minutes, Bruckhart said she asked him to remove his clothes, so he did. Then, she requested that he lie on the bed beside her.

“She began to massage my leg. Her hand slowly moved up and she touched my testicles,” said Bruckhart, who then told her he had to go to the bathroom. “I put my pants on, walked across to the bathroom, and I texted the arrest team to move in.”

Later, on cross-examination, Assistant Public Defender Connor Tarr, Strausbaugh’s attorney, asked about when his client instructed Bruckhart to take off his clothes.

“Did it appear at that time it was her intention to have sex with you?” Tarr asked.

“Yes, it did,” Bruckhart replied.

Strausbaugh was found guilty of prostitution in less than an hour. Common Pleas Judge Gregory M. Snyder sentenced her to spend one year on probation.

“I got to be frank with you, I’m not sending you to jail over this. It’s not happening. Although I could if I wanted to,” Snyder said. “But you know, you’ve cost a lot of people a lot of time and money.”

In an email, West Manchester Township Police Chief John Snyder, who took over in 2018, said Bruckhart “will not be making a statement.”

Chief County Detective Art Smith, who served as chief of the West Manchester Township Police Department at the time, “will not be commenting as part of your story, per office policy,” said Kyle King, a spokesman for the York County District Attorney’s Office, in a text message.

‘What in the world?’

In Cumberland County, Middlesex Township Police Sgt. Keith Seibert called a woman named “Kyley” on Dec. 3, 2015, who had an ad on Backpage in which she promised to “fulfill all of your playful desires.”

“Kyley” was Joeimarie Hoffman. She asked him questions — including if he was law enforcement — before stating that it would be $150 for a half-hour.

Later, Seibert met her in a motel room. They again talked about the length of the session and the price.

Hoffman, 29, of Hagerstown, Maryland, told him to feel her breast, so he did. “OK,” she said, “you’re good.” She then started taking off her clothes. He did the same, except for his underwear, and laid down on the bed.

In an affidavit of probable cause, Seibert said she got a condom and lube from the nightstand. “She placed the condom on my penis and sat down on the bed,” he wrote. “She leaned forward to perform oral sex and was stopped.”

He identified himself as a police officer and called for law enforcement to come in the room.

In an email, Seibert said he received a reporter’s requests for an interview. He said he also had a conversation with Middlesex Township Director of Public Safety Barry Sherman.

Seibert said he was not interested in discussing the case.

“I also in your letter reviewed a statement where you indicate some sexual contact occurred,” Seibert said. “That is false, at no time did any sexual contact occur.”

Hoffman pleaded guilty to two counts related to prostitution and was ordered to pay almost $625 in fines and cost costs.

Meanwhile, in Lancaster County, the New Holland Police Department, in conjunction with the Lancaster County Drug Task Force, scheduled a massage at a spa where law enforcement had received multiple complaints about possible prostitution.

A task force detective went to the spa on Feb. 21, 2019. He’s not named in court documents.

A woman, who was later identified as Zhimin Wang, 59, of East Hempfield Township, told him it would cost $40 for a massage.

When it was over, Wang “made a gesture with her hands simulating masturbation” and asked, “You want?” The detective replied, “How much?” She said $20.

“The defendant then proceeded to masturbate the undercover detective for several minutes,” police wrote in an affidavit of probable cause.

Michael Marinaro, whose associate is representing Wang, said he showed the court documents to other lawyers in his office. "It just doesn’t make any sense,” he said.

“We’re like, ‘What in the world?’ I think it’s time to stop,” Marinaro said. “When we saw that, we could not believe it.”

Wang is expected to appear back in court on Aug. 8.

New Holland Police Chief William Leighty said the undercover detective was not a police officer with his department. He said he could not comment any further because it’s an active investigation.

The New Holland Police Department, he said, had reached out for assistance with the case.

In a statement, Brett Hambright, a spokesman for the Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office, said law enforcement attends training about investigative tactics and trends related to these crimes.

The legal standard for what constitutes a crime, he said, is “somewhat complex.”

“These can be complex investigations and our police do everything they can to ensure their investigative work does not go beyond the required legal threshold to support a charge,” Hambright said.

When asked why the detective allowed the sex act to go on for “several minutes,” Hambright replied, “I have to stay with my prior comments.”

When an undercover detective with the Lancaster County Drug Task Force investigated a massage parlor on Feb. 21 in New Holland, a woman masturbated him for "several minutes" before law enforcement arrested her on prostitution charges, according to an affidavit of probable cause.(Photo: Dylan Segelbaum, York Daily Record)

Police departments and their policies … or lack of policies

The York Daily Record filed Right-to-Know Law requests with more than 25 police departments in Pennsylvania, including all of them in York County, for copies of written memos, procedures and policies on how police officers are to conduct prostitution investigations.

Many did not have policies. One emphasized that it rarely encounters prostitution in its jurisdiction.

But other police departments that have recently conducted these investigations did not have any policies, either.

'Old-fashioned police work is the typical way in which an arrest can be made'

Loper emphasized that he’s not an expert and has never participated in a prostitution detail. But he said there isn’t going to be a blanket procedure for how to meet the burden of proof. Sometimes, people don’t speak English, so a policy could hinder investigations in certain cases.

There aren’t policies for every single crime that's out there.

“We don’t have a policy, ‘If you have a robbery, this is how it’s going to be done,’ or, ‘If you have a theft, this is how it’s going to be done,” he said.

In his opinion, Loper said just seeing an ad online is not enough to warrant an arrest for prostitution on its own. The listing is certainly evidence, he said, but the wording is often too vague.

Heffner found an ad on Backpage for a woman named “Honey.” She agreed to meet him at a hotel.

The woman, who was later identified as Malakia Dowdell, checked the room and asked for $180. He gave her $200.

Dowdell hugged and patted him down.

Next, Dowdell, 25, of Columbus, Ohio, started giving him a back massage. "She then turned him over after several minutes and pulled his underwear down and started rubbing his genitalia,” according to an affidavit of probable cause. He gave the arrest code.

Later, Dowdell pleaded guilty to prostitution in exchange for paying about $620 in court costs.

Tiffanie Baldock, senior deputy city solicitor for the City of Harrisburg, later filed a petition for reconsideration that stated that the records do not exist.

Loper said what happened in that case is “an unusual occurrence.”

Because there was no “verbalization” going on to prove the elements of prostitution, that’s why “it ended up going to that point where the pants were removed, the underwear was removed, and then there was contact,” he said.

“It didn’t get to the point where it continued,” Loper said. “Basically, as soon as it happened, the arrest signal was given and it was done.”

If anyone crossed the line, they would be punished, Loper said.

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In an interview, Fairview Township Police Chief Jason Loper emphasized that he's never been part of an undercover prostitution sting. He said the police department doesn't have policies for how every single crime should be investigated. “We don’t have a policy, ‘If you have a robbery, this is how it’s going to be done,’ or, ‘If you have a theft, this is how it’s going to be done,” he said.(Photo: Paul Kuehnel, York Daily Record)

Rowe said prosecutors can successfully bring a case with circumstantial evidence when there hasn’t been “an overt request for sex in exchange for something of value.” But on the other hand, he said, that can leave the door open for the defense to argue that what had been happening was something other than prostitution.

“This does not mean that the practice of law enforcement officials actually receiving a sexual act is the best investigatory tool,” Rowe said.

York County District Attorney Dave Sunday, who took office in 2018, said law enforcement is in a time of transition and has shifted to viewing prostitution through the lens of human trafficking.

But Sunday said the way to get to the human traffickers is through the victims, which can be difficult. The only way to get them out of the situation, and the resources they need, he said, is through arrest.

He used the example of an illicit massage parlor.

Any case can be proven through direct or circumstantial evidence — or a combination of both. The women who are working in these businesses, he said, are not texting anyone or posting ads online.

“Obviously, there is a threshold that cannot be broken,” Sunday said. “But at the same time, old-fashioned police work is the typical way in which an arrest can be made in these cases.”

Police officers do not like having to conduct these investigations. Many are married. They’re difficult on both a personal and professional level, Sunday said.

“If there is enough circumstantial evidence to prove it, and they can prove it through cellphone communication, or they can prove it through emails, or they can prove it through any type of electronic communication, done. It’s over,” he said. “And if an arrest can be made at that point, that arrest should be made.”

As district attorney, Sunday said he cannot tell police departments how to conduct their day-to-day operations, but he added that “you can never go wrong having more policies.”

Said Sunday: “I absolutely support, wholeheartedly, having a policy and procedure, a specific protocol, that should be in place for every department on how they handle these investigations.”

York County District Attorney Dave Sunday said law enforcement is in a time of transition and has shifted to viewing prostitution through the lens of human trafficking. But the way to get to the human traffickers is through the victims. That can be difficult. The only way to get them out of the situation, and the resources they need, he said, is through arrest. “Obviously, there is a threshold that cannot be broken,” Sunday said. “But at the same time, old-fashioned police work is the typical way in which an arrest can be made in these cases.”(Photo: Cameron Clark, York Daily Record)

‘There’s certain things the government shouldn’t engage in’

Tom Kelley, a defense attorney in York, likened prostitution cases to undercover drug investigations. It’s not a perfect comparison. But police officers, he said, don’t actually have to use the drugs to prove the crime.

Kelley previously served as first assistant district attorney and was on the York County Court of Common Pleas from 2004 to 2015.

“You wouldn’t put an undercover police officer, a female, soliciting johns, and actually have her go through the act. Why? Because that would be appalling,” Kelley said. “The same can be said for actually allowing someone to masturbate you.”

Sometimes, he said, police officers have to be smarter than their adversaries. The justification that “it’s hard to prosecute otherwise” is like the justification that waterboarding is necessary to obtain confessions.

“To me, there’s certain things the government shouldn’t engage in. It’s difficult to prosecute these types of cases — that’s not the standard by which we govern our police behavior,” he said. “You know what? Try harder. You have the entire wealth of the state behind you.”

‘How important is a single prostitution arrest?’

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Northern York County Regional Police Deputy Chief David Lash talks about a written policy that prohibits officers from engaging in sexual activity to further an investigation.
Paul Kuehnel, pkuehnel@ydr.com

The Northern York County Regional Police Department has found a different way.

The policy formalized the guidelines that the department had already been following when it started using its own police officers to conduct details aimed at targeting human traffickers several years ago, Northern York County Regional Police Deputy Chief David Lash said.

These details “have the potential for a lot of liability on our part as well as the potential for uses of force and for improper actions by undercover police officers,” he said.

Normally, Lash said, police have enough evidence to make an arrest even prior to meeting with someone — through text messages, for instance. Law enforcement then does the exchange of money “and it’s over at that point.”

But in some instances, police might walk away.

“How important is a single prostitution arrest?” Lash said. “For us, it’s an easy answer. It’s not that important to where we’re going to put one of our officers in a situation that they don’t want to be in.”

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In an interview, Northern York County Regional Police Deputy Chief David Lash talks about the police department's written policy that prohibits police officers — unless their personal safety is in immediate jeopardy — from engaging in sexual activity to further an investigation. "We don’t want to put our officers into that situation where they believe they have to do something they’re not comfortable with professionally, personally," he said. "It’s just not worth the arrest to us.”(Photo: Paul Kuehnel, York Daily Record)

Millsaps said the document puts in writing what he's always expressed to his police officers.

The general rule of the West York Borough Police Department, the document states, is to not go beyond the initial information and intelligence gathering phase — unless an obvious and articulable case can be established in clear and plain view of uniformed police officers.

Instead, the cases will be referred to outside, specialized units or agencies.

“Although we recognize prostitution to be criminal activity, it is beyond the ability of our resources, specialization, and scope of our stated mission to conduct in depth investigations into these very complex and often ethically challenging cases,” the document states.

In an interview, Millsaps emphasized that police would take immediate action if they received information that, for instance, someone was being held against his or her will and forced into prostitution.

Millsaps said he likes to believe that his approach for a small department makes sense for both the taxpayers and the police officers.

“We are not the vice cops. We are the community cops,” Millsaps said. “We’re the borough protectors — not the brothel inspectors.”

‘Makes Meaningless Prostitution Arrests to Satisfy Personal Desires’

Police officers can compromise cases with their behavior in investigations.

In 2006, the Pennsylvania State Police allowed a man to become a confidential informant after he reported that a woman offered him “manual sexual stimulation” at a spa in Lehigh County.

Police gave the man money for sex — and for his “time” — on four separate occasions, according to court documents.

The lead investigator admitted in testimony that he and the others laughed after each rendezvous. Though his supervisors did not expressly approve the sex, they were aware and did not disapprove of it. And the trooper stated that he believed he had probable cause after the woman “offered a specific sexual act in exchange for the confidential informant’s offer of money.”

Lehigh County Common Pleas Judge Robert L. Steinberg granted a motion to throw out the case on the grounds of outrageous government conduct. Still, he noted at one point in the opinion, the judiciary is “extremely hesitant” to make that finding.

The opinion does not set a “bright line” for what’s considered outrageous government conduct, said Chris Ferro, a defense attorney in York, who reviewed the case. That’s going to come down to a “very factually specific analysis.”

But “law enforcement would be smart to read that opinion,” he said.

“Clearly, there’s a line that, I think, quite frankly, hovers around common sense and having decent ethics, that can be crossed in the zest to make arrests in this field,” Ferro said.

Law enforcement can be reprimanded for conduct unbecoming of a police officer.

Courts have provided guidance about what rises to that level. That includes behavior that “adversely affects the morale and efficiency of the police force” or “tends to destroy public respect for, and confidence in, the police force.”

Generally speaking, police officers are held to higher ethical standards than normal employees, said Stanton Miller, an attorney in Media.

“In undercover operations there’s going to be a balance between the officers being able to retain the integrity of the office, while also blending into the environment,” Miller said.

“But if the police’s investigative techniques are harming the public trust, that could be extremely harmful in the long run.”

Conduct unbecoming of a police officer, he said, is sort of like a catchall. The term refers to “anything the employer deems or considers inappropriate or not in keeping in what they would expect both on duty and off duty.”

It’s up to a police department to determine that on its own, Miller said.

Even when police are found to have engaged in unprofessional behavior in a prostitution investigation, that might not rise to the level of a crime.

Take what happened with former Fairview Township Police Chief Scott Hockenberry.

Here’s what he wrote happened in a police incident report:

On Aug. 3, 2012, Hockenberry called a woman named “Maggie” who was listed as an escort on Backpage. They agreed to meet at a hotel that morning.

The woman, Suhua Zhang, 51, of Flushing, New York, answered the door in her underwear and motioned for him to get naked. She helped him take off his shirt. “Money,” she said.

When Hockenberry asked her how much, she replied, “$160.” He asked what he would get in exchange, but she didn’t answer. Zhang began kissing him on the chest and took off his pants. She removed all her clothes.

Then, he sat on the edge of the bed. She rubbed what appeared to be lube on her vagina, opened a condom and tried to pull out his penis. "She attempted to put my penis in her mouth," Hockenberry wrote, adding that he then excused himself and called for backup.

Prosecutors dropped a charge of prostitution. Zhang then pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct.

One of the allegations was called, “Makes Meaningless Prostitution Arrests to Satisfy Personal Desires.”

Hockenberry pulled police officers off their regular duties to conduct the sting in the Zhang case, the report states, when the department was short-staffed. No planning was involved in the arrest, witnesses stated, and he had no instruction or training on how to appropriately handle prostitution cases, according to court documents.

He bragged about the arrest, telling witnesses that it "got close" and that he had his "pants down to his knees," according to the report.

When a detective discovered there was an aspect of human trafficking involved in the case, the report states, Hockenberry tried to spin the situation. He also told the township supervisors that he received approval from the district attorney’s office to conduct the arrest in that manner.

But then-District Attorney Tom Kearney said he first learned of the arrest five days after it took place.

Because of the language barrier, Hockenberry told the district attorney that he thought “his conduct was necessary to establish the elements of the offense,” according to the report.

The conduct, the report states, “went beyond the elements that were necessary to establish the crime of prostitution.” Even if Hockenberry received approval from the district attorney’s office, what happened “clearly demonstrated unprofessional conduct that was unbecoming of a police officer.”

Hockenberry was fired for his behavior in the sting. He filed a defamation and wrongful termination lawsuit — the special counsel report was attached as an exhibit to the complaint — and later reached a settlement with Fairview Township.

At the time, Peter Daley, Hockenberry’s attorney, said his client stated that he was in the hotel room “for one minute” and couldn’t have done all those things in that time.

The York County District Attorney’s Office determined that his conduct was not illegal, and no charges were filed.

Former Fairview Township Police Chief Scott Hockenberry was terminated based on his conduct in an undercover prostitution arrest on Aug. 3, 2012. Anne Zerbe, special counsel for Fairview Township, determined that his behavior demonstrated conduct unbecoming of a police officer. The following page is taken from the special counsel report. The heading refers to one of 13 allegations of misconduct that was included in an anonymous complaint about Hockenberry.(Photo: Dylan Segelbaum, York Daily Record)

Sex workers and those who are addicted to drugs or mentally ill are at an increased risk for sex-related police violence due to the stigmas surrounding them and their general vulnerability to abuse, she said.

Layden said she understands that some police officers make these arrests to help people get access to resources or find an exit strategy.

“To get them into diversion court, you have to arrest them — I get that,” Layden said. “But do you have to traumatize somebody to arrest them?”

“The priority has got to be on violent offenders,” Rhodes said. “Prostituted persons are the victims here — anybody who is being purchased for sex is being exploited.”

Sexually exploited people often exist on the frontlines of a community’s violent crime but are hesitant to report incidents to police. They do not think the police will take their complaints seriously, and they worry about the legal ramifications, she said.

The way the state’s system is set up, sex buyers are only targeted 25% of the time, Rhodes said. In 2017, Pennsylvania had 1,143 arrests for prostitution, but only 447 were for buying sex.

“Prostitution is gender-based violence, and we need to start shifting minds and hearts that way,” Rhodes said. “Prostitution would not even exist without the demand for commercial sex.”

Since Rhodes began handling these cases as a prosecutor in Philadelphia in 2003, she said she has been concerned with police tactics.

She’s in support of legislative efforts to include police officers and detectives in the statute for institutional sexual assault.

If someone is under investigation for prostitution, law enforcement should not be able to engage in any type of sexual conduct with that individual to make an arrest, Rhodes said.

And in her opinion, they don’t need to be arrested in the first place. Law enforcement should work with victim services and set the women up with resources and exit strategies.

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"I don’t think this was a win in society,” Heather Strausbaugh said of her arrest and subsequent conviction for prostitution. “I don’t think it was worth it to them.”(Photo: Paul Kuehnel, York Daily Record)

For Strausbaugh, the woman who was found guilty of prostitution after the sting in West Manchester Township, the verdict amounted to more than probation and court costs.

“I couldn’t even get a job at a gas station or a fast food restaurant,” she said. “You don’t want me to go back to the way I was living before, but you’re making it so hard for me.”

She eventually found work. But now, Strausbaugh said she hates and distrusts the police.

“I don’t think this was a win in society,” Strausbaugh said. “I don’t think it was worth it to them.”

Contact Dylan Segelbaum at 717-771-2102 and Sam Ruland at 717-771-2029.

Check out this photo gallery of York County's most wanted: (The photos and information published are provided by the York County Sheriff's Office. To report information on any of these individuals, call York County Crime Stoppers at 717-755-TIPS.)